CU sets up alert system

Other campuses boosting security in light of Va. Tech

Erika Gonzalez, Rocky Mountain News

Published August 24, 2007 at midnight

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Colorado colleges and universities are taking steps to improve security plans this fall in the aftermath of last spring's shootings at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va.

Officials at the University of Colorado launched a new wireless text-messaging service Thursday to alert students and faculty in case of a campus emergency. Freshman dorm students are moving in this week.

Administrators are asking students to submit their cell phone numbers to a database to receive emergency messages. The Short Message Service, or SMS, was recommended by a task force created after the April shootings to examine technology that might prove useful in emergency communications.

"We felt it was a hole or gap in our communications systems, and we felt it was one we could fill," said CU Police spokesman Brad Wiesley of the new system.

The university received a number of calls from concerned parents about the school's security plan after the Virginia Tech shootings in which a gunman killed 32 people before committing suicide. Parents also expressed concern about safety during orientation meetings this summer.

Wiesley said that anyone with a university e-mail account can sign up for the new service, which cost $18,000 to implement. The school also will pay 6 cents per completed text message.

Colorado State University has been studying the same text-message service since last year, but sped up the process of installing SMS after the shootings. The school began testing the service with staff and faculty who use university-provided phones this summer.

CSU officials hope to open the system to students soon.

CU-Denver, Metropolitan State College and the Community Collge of Denver also are looking into a similar system for students and faculty at the Auraria campus.

In addition to text-messaging, CU officials also are working to centralize the process of locking down buildings electronically, via computer. Roughly 25 percent to 30 percent of campus buildings can be locked electronically. Wiesley also said the school is studying the idea of clearing the content on its Web site during emergencies and using it to communicate messages.

CSU, meanwhile, is considering installing an indoor public announcement system and using its programmable digital signs to broadcast emergency messages.

"No one means is sufficient to get information out to large population quickly," explained Jose Valdes, CSU's associate director for telecommunications.

The schools that share the Auraria campus recently hired a Homeland Security expert to serve in the newly created position of campus emergency preparedness coordinator. The institutions also are working on finalizing a comprehensive emergency management plan.

At CU, the announcement of a new notification system came on a day when the campus was crowded with freshmen moving into dorms.

President Hank Brown got into the act, carrying boxes, suitcases and even rearranging beds for incoming students, 50 years after he arrived on the campus as an accounting major.

"It might be the only useful thing I do today," joked Brown, who will resign his post in February.

Taking precautions

CU's new text-messaging service allows the university to notify students, faculty and staff of emergencies via cell phones.

• Student mobile or cell phone numbers will be maintained in a secure database and will not be used for any purpose other than activation during a campus emergency, the university said.

• The system will allow the CU administration to send a message of 132 characters or less to cell phones in the database. Follow-up messages, if needed, would follow.

• Students, faculty and staff with a colorado.edu e-mail address can sign up online through CUConnect at http://cuconnect. colorado.edu or by going to www.colorado.edu/alerts.

gonzaleze@RockyMountainNews.comor 303-954-5350

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